ROLO TOMASSI – Live @ Electric Ballroom (2019)

Rolo Tomassi is a British experimental metal band formed in 2004 in Sheffield, England. They are known for their innovative blend of progressive metal, mathcore, post-rock, and electronic elements, creating a sound that is both chaotic and melodic. Over the years, they have developed a reputation for their intense live performances and unique approach to songwriting.

Eva Spence is the vocalist and one of the founding members of Rolo Tomassi. Known for her intense and versatile vocal delivery, her style combines both ferocious screaming and clean, melodically haunting singing, allowing her to shift between aggressive and calm atmospheres.

Joseph Thorpe, their synth player, adds a special, electronic layer to the band’s complex and genre-blending sound, contributing significantly to their atmospheric and experimental elements. Thorpe’s work with synthesizers and electronic effects added a deeper dimension to Rolo Tomassi’s music, enhancing the band’s progression into more avant-garde territory, especially in albums like Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It (2018) and Where Myth Becomes Memory (2023). Besides playing the keys, Thorpse also sings.

Rolo Tomassi’s sound is known for its genre-blending, shape-shifting nature, creating contrasts and protean fragments of music. Their sound incorporates elements of hardcore, mathcore, metal, post-rock, shoegaze, electronica, and other genres. Theur music is intensively polyrhythmic. Polyrhythms, where multiple contrasting rhythms are played simultaneously, are a key feature of their sound, especially in the band’s earlier work and in their mathcore and progressive metal influences. This technique contributes to the intricacy and unpredictability of their music.

SETLIST:

00:00 – Almost Always 06:59 – Cloaked 10:58 – To Resist Forgetting 15:06 – Labyrinthine 18:50 – [Interlude] 19:24 – Rituals 22:56 – Prelude III – Phantoms / 23:39 – Opalescent 28:34 – Unseen and Unknown / 29:15 – Stage Knives 33:16 – [Interlude] 34:11 – Aftermath 38:38 – A Flood of Light 46:26 – interlude 48:37 – Mutual Ruin 53:50 – Contretemps 1:00:45 – Prescience 1:06:10 – Drip